BagsværdSkole in Gladsaxe, Denmark is a newly opened school built to use all square meters for teaching – both inside and outside. Headmaster PerUngfelttold in his introduction, that the architects and teachers had cooperated throughout the whole process to ensure an optimal school for students and teachers.

What strikes us most on our guided tour around the school is the quietness of the whole place. Even at recess the 770 students between six and 16 are hard to hear. The whole school is built with materials that absorbs the sound and reduces background noise.

“That is a necessity if you want students to work all places and at all hours.You can´t tell students to go outside and work on their project and then give them terrible working conditions”, our guide teacher Anne Lyngsie informs us.

Light is also an important factor for a good work environment. Here there are windows everywhere. Even the class rooms have windows facing the hall to allow light to pass through from the overhead windows in the hallways. And if teachers have students working in the hallways they can also keep an eye on them if needed.

Each of the classrooms have double sets of doors so easy access to the creative outdoor area can be reached. And class rooms are designed with flexible walls to make the classroom fit the functions needed.

“If we have a whole year-group project where we want all 75 students to get information at the same time, we simply roll the walls aside and the class room opens up into the hallway”, Anne Lyngsie explains.

The school is designed with three separate sections – one for the younger group, one for the in between ages and one for the school leavers. The center of the school is the huge open library and multimedia center.

Our guide Anne Lyngsie tells us, how this open study center in the middle of the school was a great concern for the teachers and they wanted it closed. But the architects were not to change their plans on that one. They wanted the center of study, the library, to be the heart of a bustling school. And according to Anne Lyngsie, it has worked very well. Students respect the place; they do not see it as a playground.They mill in and out to find material needed for their projects or studies.

Here the science labs are at the ground floor – of course one is tempted to say. In Biology you need to use outdoor facilities and it is a great advantage to have easy access to it, right outside your classroom. Needless to say it is placed close to a little forest. Equipment for measuring and rinsing off in water are of course available outside as well as inside.